An event that aims to encourage a love of literature in the community will mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, with public readings and discussions of works inspired by the conflict.

The Runnymede International Literary Festival starts on Monday (March 3) at Royal Holloway, University of London, and has as its patrons Sir Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate and professor of creative writing at Royal Holloway, and Hilary Mantel, twice winner of The Man Booker Prize.

Sir Andrew said: “More than any other conflict, the First World War is credited with creating some of the finest literature ever written, which is as poignant today as it was both during the war and immediately after it.

“It is very fitting that this year’s Runnymede International Literary Festival, now in its ninth year, acknowledges the centenary of the First World War in this way and we hope the public will enjoy and learn from the expertise we have here at Royal Holloway.”

Events include a talk on Monday by Professor Tim Armstrong entitled The Men of 1914, in which he will focus on Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, James Joyce and TS Eliot.

On Friday March 7, Prof Robert Hampson will compare Robert Graves, Frederick Manning and Ford Madox Ford’s writings about the war in his lecture Under Fire: The First World War in Contemporary Prose, while on Monday March 10, a workshop on the memoirs of Edmund Blunden will be hosted by Dr Betty Jay.

Other dates for the diary include Friday March 14, when Dr Ruth Hemus highlights Emmy Hennings, Suzanne Duchamp and Hannah Hoech’s artistic reactions in Dada’s Women and War, and Prof Chris Townsend discusses Paul Nash and other war artists on Monday March 17.

To conclude the festival on Friday March 21, the university welcomes former foreign secretary Lord David Owen to its campus to talk about his new book, Hidden Perspectives: The Military Conversations 1906-1904, which centres on the military and diplomatic conversations that took place in the run-up to the First World War.

The festival will also be a special day for schoolchildren on Wednesday March 26, which is designed to present pupils with creative interpretations of the war.

Further events will be held by Royal Holloway experts at the Centre for Creative Collaboration, in Acton Street, London.